Hindsight is the historian's necessary vice.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Hindsight can be merciless. People of any given era often look back in time and wonder how their predecessors could have been so dimwitted.
History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.
If you think about it, the historian's task is like that of the detective.
You can't operate by hindsight.
Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.
History has spurts and then is steady, and then maybe even backing up a step, and then forward again.
History is a tool used by politicians to justify their intentions.
History is the story of events, with praise or blame.
We do not agree that hindsight is required. The risks of internal strife in Iraq, active Iranian pursuit of its interests, regional instability, and al-Qaeda activity in Iraq, were each explicitly identified before the invasion.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing.